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Crude

On’yomiぼく
Kun’yomiほう・ほお・えのき
MeaningsCrude, Simple, Plain, Docile
JLPT N1 6 strokes #1584 most common Secondary school Radical tree
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 朴

Stroke order is not decoration — it determines how the character looks handwritten and how dictionaries index it.

6 strokes
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Draw it on screen and be marked on stroke order and direction.

分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 朴

Almost every kanji is built from a small set of reusable parts. Learn the parts once and you stop memorising thousands of unrelated shapes.

Why it sounds the way it does. The part is the phonetic component — it carries the sound rather than the meaning. That is why 朴 is read ぼく. Roughly two-thirds of all kanji work this way, which makes unfamiliar readings guessable once you spot the pattern.
部首 · Radical

The radical of 朴

Radical 75 of 214
Tree

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 朴 is filed under (tree) — radical number 75 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 木

練習 · Practice

Drill 朴 right now

Three quick games built from this character's real data. Your streak is kept in this browser.

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Crude ぼく ほう・ほお・えのき
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 朴

Kanji are almost never met alone. These are the most common words built from this character, ordered by how often they actually appear in Japanese.

素朴 そぼく simple; artless; naive
純朴 じゅんぼく simple and honest; unsophisticated; simpleminded
淳朴 じゅんぼく simple and honest; unsophisticated; simpleminded
醇朴 じゅんぼく simple and honest; unsophisticated; simpleminded
朴直 ボクチョク simplicity, honesty, naivete
質朴 シツボク simple (and honest), simple-hearted, unsophisticated
厚朴 コーボク Japanese bigleaf magnolia bark (used in Chinese medicine)
朴歯 ホーバ geta supports made out of magnolia wood, geta with these supports
朴訥 ボクトツ unsophisticated, ruggedly honest, artless, unaffected, simple, naive
朴念仁 ボクネンジン quiet unsociable person; obstinate person, blockhead
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 朴

Japanese has far more kanji than syllables, so one reading is shared by many characters. These are the ones you will confuse with 朴 — learn them together, not separately.

画数 · 6 strokes

Other 6-stroke kanji

Useful when looking a character up by stroke count — and a common source of visual mix-ups.

頻度 · Frequency

Next in the frequency list

朴 is the 1584th most common kanji in written Japanese. Learning in frequency order is the fastest route to reading real text.

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質問 · Questions

About the kanji 朴

What does the kanji 朴 mean?

朴 means Crude, Simple, Plain, Docile. It is the 1584th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 朴?

朴 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) ぼく; kun'yomi (native Japanese) ほう、ほお、えのき.

How many strokes does 朴 have?

朴 is written with 6 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 朴?

It appears at JLPT level N1, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in secondary school.

What is the radical of 朴?

The radical of 朴 is 木 (tree), radical number 75 of the 214 Kangxi radicals. The radical is the component a dictionary files the character under, and it usually points at the character's meaning.

What parts is the kanji 朴 made of?

朴 is built from 木 (tree) and 卜 (divining). Learning kanji as combinations of a few hundred reusable components is far more efficient than memorising each character as a separate shape.

Why is 朴 read ぼく?

朴 contains 卜 as its phonetic component — the part that carries the sound rather than the meaning, which is why 朴 is read ぼく. Roughly two-thirds of all kanji are built this way, so spotting the phonetic component often lets you guess the reading of a character you have never seen.

What words use the kanji 朴?

Common words written with 朴 include 素朴 (そぼく, simple; artless; naive); 純朴 (じゅんぼく, simple and honest; unsophisticated; simpleminded); 淳朴 (じゅんぼく, simple and honest; unsophisticated; simpleminded).

Which kanji sound the same as 朴?

朴 shares a reading with 目 (ぼく), 木 (ぼく), 僕 (ぼく), 撲 (ぼく), 黙 (ぼく), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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